


Redo

by Miraphina Atherton (mew_tsubaki)



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, MAJOR spoilers for s18, btw i live for any scenes involving friendship fluff with Kasie lol, that's a light T rating btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28948095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mew_tsubaki/pseuds/Miraphina%20Atherton
Summary: Bishop had been the one in danger. So why is it that Torres comes off as being wound tight, primed to be the second explosion in her past twenty-four hours?*Followed by "live hard"*
Relationships: Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57





	Redo

**Author's Note:**

> The NCIS characters belong to Donald P. Bellasario, not to me. Well, after what just happened, I couldn't not write an epilogue to it. :3c Read, review, and enjoy! *Note: This is set during and after s18e5, "Head of the Snake," so major spoilers ahead.

Surprisingly, there wasn't any ringing in her ears. No, she'd been far away enough from the action and even the subsequent fireballs after the fire department arrived on the scene that her hearing hadn't been affected.

But now Bishop sat in the bullpen, alone and not comforted by the orange walls of NCIS, waiting for Torres, Gibbs, and Fornell to return. She almost wished for ringing in her ears instead of the emptiness of the office around her—not even the bustle of fellow agents in the background was a comfort. Not tonight.

A part of Bishop was a little stunned to be left alone so soon after her kidnapping. Then again, Palmer had looked her over already and cleaned her face up to his high standards despite what the EMTs had done for her at the scene. Vance and Sloane had dispersed, as well—Sloane, Bishop knew not where to, and Vance she figured was assuring SECNAV they were about to wrap up this op in the grandest way possible with Merriweather's arrest. No one had any doubts that, given the trio sent after the kingpin and his spoiled daughter, they'd have Merriweather after tonight, no matter what.

She couldn't bring herself to think of McGee's status right now, so Bishop forced her attention back to the scattered paperwork on her desk. Even so, filling it out and filing it away was a mindless task, and she caught herself on multiple occasions tapping her ballpoint against her knee or thigh. Even when she willed herself to sit still, her foot tapped on the carpet instead. Her impatience filled her to the brim and bubbled over regardless.

Or was it even impatience?

Eleanor Raye Bishop could identify her many emotions and felt fairly confident she could spot them from a mile away. That was why, right now, calling this "impatience" didn't seem right, didn't click. Normally, impatience for her arrived with a tinge of annoyance if not outright anger.

She maximized one of the windows on her desktop, one with white text on a black background, and caught her reflection there. Nope. No glaring brow or flared nostrils that would scare off the others if they were around—just hair mussed from having run her hand through it a zillion times. So no anger…so probably not impatience, either.

Bishop swallowed a lump in her throat. Oh. …ah. Replaying the day's events in her head, it made more sense that this was nervousness. Even so, the idea formed a more tangible lump in her throat that tried to force its way into her mouth, and she covered her mouth and rubbed her stomach with her other hand in an effort not to let her nerves make her hurl.

Good God. Staying up here alone wasn't going to make anything better, and these next few hours would feel like days until Torres and the rest came back.

Acknowledging that sitting still (or at least attempting to) did her no good, Bishop shoved her work aside and headed for the elevator. She rode it downstairs and heaved a sigh of relief when she found Kasie moving around the lab and not focused on any one single task. She knocked on the open lab door to announce her arrival.

Kasie did a double-take. "Oh! Hey." Her eyes went skyward before she looked at Bishop again. "They back already? Is everyone…?"

Bishop shook her head. Then, realizing the mixed messages that sent, she said, "Uh, no, no one hurt, as far as I know. No one's back yet. I've heard nothing." She chewed on her bottom lip.

Kasie offered her half a grin. "Same." She raised her eyebrows. "Anything further from Delilah?"

"No. It's still too early for that, I think."

"Jeez…" The lab tech shook her head and closed her eyes. "I don't know how Gibbs keeps going from one thing to the next. Sniping McGee to chasing after Merriweather—oh, uhh, sorry," she mumbled, her eyes flying open. They were big and round with worry.

"You don't have to avoid bringing him up around me," Bishop assured her. "So Merriweather's crew got the drop on me. We didn't know the extent of his paranoia and how many cameras he had around Vladimir's place. Being kidnapped—happens." She paused; her words sounded funny even to her own ears. "It's just another job hazard. I'm more concerned for McGee, though."

Kasie nodded, but she frowned, leaned back against her monitor workspace, and crossed her arms in front of her chest. The long look she gave Bishop made the blonde feel as though she were being appraised. "One: No, being kidnapped is a _much_ bigger deal than that. And two: This can't be all that brought you down here. Something up, Bish?"

Bishop twiddled her thumbs. The cut by her right eye itched a little, but focusing on her thumbs kept her from scratching. "…no, not really. Just—it's been a long day. I'd be lying if I said Merriweather hadn't rung my bell a bit."

"Yeah, but you gave as good as you got. And you're here now, so that's what matters, right?"

Bishop half shrugged, half nodded. Honestly, whether she'd had her ass handed to her in a fight didn't matter much to her. Going over everything that had happened today, she found that Merriweather actually registered as the tiniest blip on her radar. No, it was the later events at the hangar that mattered more—and bothered her.

Seeing Torres in a panic had hurt, but that was easy to remedy, and she had gone to him on autopilot, happy to be crushed in his hug that was strong enough to lift her off the ground and make her tear up anew—but at least the tears this time were not because of acrid smoke or danger but because she was glad to be alive and, frankly, safe in his arms. It had been brief, and Gibbs had hugged her, too, and then the EMTs resumed their checkup before clearing her. But then she was free and back at Torres' side, and she rode back to NCIS with him.

But, despite their reunion, the ride back was stiff and quiet. Bishop never spoke a word, waiting for Torres to go first…yet he never piped up. It wasn't until they were back in the bullpen and surrounded by others that he regained his voice, but even then he wasn't really talking with her or to her. So Bishop had spent these last several hours mystified as to what exactly was on Nick Torres' mind. And it worried her.

"Hey."

Bishop blinked and snapped out of her concerns. She realized Kasie had left her spot across from her and now stood beside her in the doorway. She mustered a tiny grin when Kasie bumped their shoulders together. "Sorry."

Kasie stared at Bishop over the rims of her glasses. "Ellie, you sure you don't have a concussion? You seem—off." This time when she frowned, there was a frightened tinge to it.

"No," Bishop promised. "The EMTs and Jimmy all checked me out. Banged up but no worse than usual."

"Ellie—"

"I've got to catch up on paperwork and rearrange my desk while I have the free time," she said. She gave Kasie's shoulder a friendly bump back. "Didn't mean to interrupt you, Kasie. But I'll let you know the second they're back." She walked out then without waiting for Kasie's reaction.

* * *

In reality, Bishop didn't let Kasie know the second they were back. Bishop herself didn't learn until a few minutes after Torres, Gibbs, and Fornell returned by way of text from Sloane, and most everyone convened upstairs after Merriweather and his daughter were processed and secured.

The victory of landing Merriweather didn't last long, though. The moment Bishop brought up the latest update from Delilah, Gibbs had played the severity of McGee's situation down, and she exchanged a look with the others. Weirder still was the way the rest caught Gibbs' enthusiasm or at least feigned it. Somehow, everyone else seemed to go home as if it were any other day.

She lingered in the bullpen with Torres, though, and walked over to his desk while he crammed a few things into his backpack. "Hey," she said.

Torres glanced at her, unconvinced, though she hadn't said much yet.

Dammit. Even though the tension had been high today and especially just now with everyone still worried over McGee, somehow it had yet to dissipate when everyone else had left for the night. "I was serious about going to the hospital in the morning, Nick. I'll visit McGee and I'll have one final checkup, okay?" Because that had to be it, right? Torres had come so close to losing both of his friends and partners today, so that was why he'd been giving her the cold shoulder, right?

There was a tightness to his jaw. He didn't utter his relief or berate her for not going while he was out with Gibbs and Fornell. Instead, quiet settled between the two of them again.

Bishop internally sighed and walked half a step behind him as they made their way to the elevator and left the building together. Torres stomped to his car, and still she trailed after him, joining him at his vehicle. She watched him unlock his door and toss his bag in the backseat, but she met his eyes over the roof when she opened the passenger side door. "I'm not looking for a ride home," she stated.

Torres furrowed his brow. Coupled with that grimace of his, it made him seem as though he were glaring at her.

She hesitated, struggling to find the words that would get him to open up but not burst, a scenario that would work to her advantage. Suddenly Kasie's concern occurred to her, and Bishop decided it wouldn't hurt to let Torres read incorrectly between the lines. "Look, Nick…would you mind staying up with me awhile?" She gave him a tiny, tired smile, which was more genuine than she realized as even her jacket felt heavy on her shoulders in that moment. "Just in case the paramedics missed a concussion anyway."

That did the trick. Bishop caught the flash of fear in his dark eyes, and the tightness in his jaw softened by the slightest fraction. Torres nodded, and then he slid in behind the wheel.

Bishop was too tired to let the quiet of this ride bother her like the one earlier in the day. Rather, she focused on the steady hum of the engine and white noise of the radio turned down low. Better still was the fact that Torres was here with her; even if he were upset with her for some unknown reason, she preferred an irritated Torres' company to being left alone at the office.

It'd been a little while since she'd last crashed at or visited Torres' apartment. Maybe…oh, a month ago, she realized as he led the way inside. 2020 was turning out to be an odd year, and the team had enough on their plate to begin with, so she and Torres and Kasie had planned a monster movie marathon with a chocolate-snacks-only rule for Valentine's weekend (they'd had to work the day of). Originally meant for singles only, they'd extended invites to Sloane, Ducky, and Gibbs. But Gibbs had disappeared (now they knew why), Ducky had spent the holiday with Palmer's family, and Sloane had RSVP'd only to back out at the last second when Faith called her mother up for dinner.

She looked around now at the familiar surroundings and grinned to herself. Torres kept the place clean and tidier than one might expect, but she found it cozy. Bishop dropped her bag inside the door and shrugged out of her jacket, and then she grabbed her favorite spot on the right end of his couch. There she curled up and waited for him to calm down and join her.

Torres took his time. Mostly he gave her his back as he went to his kitchenette and fussed with making himself a sandwich with, Bishop guessed, everything in it. It was a good sign when he removed his jacket after a little while and draped it over a nearby chair by the closest counter. His last stop in the kitchenette was the freezer, from which he pulled the gallon of chocolate mint chip ice-cream. He brought that, a spoon, and his sandwich over, placing his plate on his coffee table and passing the tub and spoon to Bishop. But when he sat, with his elbows resting on his knees, Torres…sort of deflated. And the look he gave her was a reproving one.

Bishop doubted it was for digging right in to the ice-cream.

He shook his head. "Do you know how big a pain in the ass it is, partnering with Tobias Fornell even for half a day?"

She wanted to laugh. But now probably was not the time.

Torres smiled, but it was sardonic and didn't reach his eyes. "He actually had the gall to assure me 'we'll get your girl back' when he further broke his cover at the warehouse." He gritted his teeth again, took a bite of his sandwich, choked it down, and continued. "I was _livid_ at that—that freaking FBI retiree. You only got taken because we got involved in this op."

Bishop glanced at her food. She wanted to point out that Merriweather had numbers on his side…but, yeah, Torres had a point. Numbers aside, Bishop wouldn't've been in danger if they hadn't joined the op at all.

"Gibbs…also…had to yank my dumb ass back from running into a plane that was still blowing up—"

"I know." She offered him a soft smile.

Torres gaped at her. "You do?"

"Yeah. I saw you, Nick."

"Oh." He scratched the side of his neck and dropped his eyes to his plate…or maybe the coffee table—his gaze seemed unfocused. Torres frowned as he continued, "…well, when I saw you outside the hangar—" He picked up his head and met her eyes, looking a bit like a beaten puppy. "You—You looked so fragile. But I couldn't help crushing you in that hug. And honestly I wished, just a part of me wished, that Merriweather had given us reason tonight not to arrest him." He pulled a face. "Granted, maybe Fornell has more right than I do to take a shot at Merriweather. Or anyone else who's actually lost their loved one to his business, but—" Torres shook his head. "Damn it, I was _scared_. Ellie, I was _scared_. I was pissed, but I was scared, because I know you. I know what you can do. But I also know that there exist people for whom you are no match. I'm no match for them, either. And we can't always have a team on hand to take them down."

Bishop eyed his profile for a while. Platitudes like "That's life" would fail right now. The same went for explaining that was simply how their jobs worked; that had been one thing, fitting that in to her conversation with Kasie earlier this evening. At least she could now clear away the fog of her own worries. "I'm relieved," she admitted, resting the left side of her head against the back of his couch.

Torres stared at her. "Relieved?"

"Yep. You were so quiet around me afterwards. I thought you were mad at me for getting caught."

"What? How could I be mad at you for that?" His eyes widened. "If anything, I'm damn impressed you kicked his ass and hid in the hangar as long as you did. You're getting more badass, Bishop." He punctuated his statement with a toothy grin, and the remnants of the tension between them dissolved.

Finally able to relax, Bishop returned his grin. Both of them got back to their food, as well, with Torres cleaning up and prying the gallon from her hands when it was half gone. That small sorrow aside, he reclaimed his spot beside her on the couch, and she snuggled into his side as he clicked the television on and cycled through the channels. They settled on the late night news, mostly weather bits and fluff pieces about pets being rescued from this and that emergency—precisely the type of background noise to drowse to, especially with the volume set right and Torres absentmindedly stroking her hair, mindful not to brush her bruises.

It was pleasant, until one of the repeated top headlines involved an explosion in the Middle East, and the noise seemed deafening to the both of them. Bishop didn't know if Torres jolted because she did or vice versa or maybe they even jolted in unison. But it was too much right now, too close to home, and Torres turned the TV off without a word. He pulled her into his arms, hugging her again just like at the hangar.

But this time the embrace was longer, sturdier, and Bishop felt her eyes watering again in relief. She smiled and sniffled.

The sound made him pull away. "Does it—"

She shook her head. "I'm not hurt anywhere else, no. I'm fine."

"But your head—"

Ah, right. Oops. Time to correct that assumption. "Palmer would not have missed a concussion, Nick. I'm fine," she asserted.

Torres frowned, clearly mulling over the facts. All the while, his eyes roved over her face. As if checking himself, he gently prodded the cut on her right cheekbone and above her left brow, and it was the latter that made her wince. Torres raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to protest—

—but Bishop stopped that protest in its track with her mouth on his. She kissed him, but it wasn't merely a distraction from her bruises. It wasn't done lightly. It wasn't like kissing him while undercover as Charlie and Luis. It wasn't business at all, but it was more than pleasure. It was a reminder that the panic she'd seen in Torres today, that fury…she'd felt it last year when she'd almost lost him in that hit-and-run. This was comfort and caring and _love_.

Their kiss was long, but they eventually broke apart, slowly. When they did, she pressed another kiss to his chin, and his lips brushed her forehead. Satisfied, she nestled into his arms.

She was right this time, identifying her emotion. She _was_ relieved. But, better than that, she and Torres had taken a step that…was long-awaited and long overdue, Bishop realized as she nodded off against his chest. And, tired but knowing she was exactly where she wanted to be, she decided they'd talk about this in the morning, after a good rest and with clear minds…because she knew this was precisely how she wished their reunion at the hangar had gone instead. She was glad for this redo.

**Author's Note:**

> -w- I don't always work the actual title of my fics into the story, but this time it seemed appropriate/fitting/cozy. :D I…have so many feels. Esp given the 3-month timeskip between "Sunburn" and "Head of the Snake" in s18—like, that actually was a little stunning, so including an alternate Valentine's celebration as a passing mention in this almost makes me wanna write about it, *lol*. Anywho! I'm never gonna forget Bishop's murderous vibes when Torres nearly died in the previous season—I mean, great episode, but WOW, girl, could you be anymore obvo about your feelings for him? XD So "Head of the Snake" felt like a juxtaposition to that, IMO, altho I do think the actual Ellick hug in the hangar scene was too brief. :P (I mean, I kinda needed more Ellick in general in this ep, BUT I DIGRESS.) I'm a big Kasie fan, so sending Bishop downstairs to try to keep her mind busy was fun plus friendship fluff! But otherwise just so many Ellick feels. Pardon any canon detail errors since I'm writing this fresh on the heels of watching "Head of the Snake" only once (the primetime airing), but you can bet I'll be poring over the episode in the future when I have it on DVD, *lol*. Anyway, if you need some fresh Ellick fluff, go read "[a shared hypothetical](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28947711)" after you leave a review/comment on this! :D And await some more Ellick from me~ -w-
> 
> Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other NCIS fics if you liked this.
> 
> -mew-tsubaki :')


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